On Jul 24, 2009, at 7:09 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
> In my town, cops have become so staggeringly arrogant that
> they won't even acknowledge that you exist unless they want
> to cuff you. Ordinary human interactions have become
> next to impossible. You ask a question and the cop stares
> over your head and pretends you're not there.
I think we live in the same town and I don't know what you're talking about. I've had many entirely civil interactions with the cops in my precinct - 88 (eight-eight in cop lingo). My interactions became more than casual when my father's car was stolen and I filed the complaint, etc. The most unpleasant part was dealing with the civilian employees, who seem vastly underpaid and dis'd and very sullen about it. But aside from that, casual conversations on the street have been entirely pleasant. I even had a long chat with a cop on the main Fort Greene drag on Fulton St about the politics and sociology of cop-dom.
But the NYS tropper who gave me a speeding ticket on the Taconic last February - 75 in a 55 zone, $285 - was a fascist prick. I was guilty as hell, but he didn't have to be such a dick about it.
Doug